I feel like I can finally write about Gary, and what his loss means to me, so here goes.

Gary Higginbotham

I wish I could say that I had known Gary my whole life but that’s just not how it was. My parents, both born and raised in Texarkana, moved away to the Little Rock area before I was ever born. I didn’t have the privilege of growing up around my paternal grandparents, or any of my aunts, uncles, or even any of the many cousins I didn’t even know about. I didn’t even know another Higginbotham relative existed outside of my immediate family unit, until 2011.

I met Gary for the first time on the 23rd day of May, 2011 when a desire to know more about my family became a mission of sorts. Cousin Nedra Turney took me to meet Gary and Bessie. We had an instant connection and Gary filled a gap in my heart that I didn’t even know existed. After that first meeting, we spent hours, and if you know Gary at all, you know I truly mean hours, chatting on the phone. These chats almost always pertained to his love of his family. I learned about my grandparents from him. I learned about his parents, his children and his grandchildren. He had a passion for his family, unlike any I have ever seen before.

Gary and Bessie

His love for Bessie, was evident and strong. I admired his devotion to her. He told me one time, “Every morning Bessie and I get up and have coffee together and sit and talk. Sometimes we talk for a long time, and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes I just enjoy her presence before we even start our day. She’s my everything and there isn’t one thing I will ever want to do or will do if Bessie isn’t included.” He was devoted to her and loved her immensely, and it showed.

Gary and Bessie

The day of Gary’s funeral Bessie, who just happens to be the strongest woman I have ever known, told me, “When I first met Gary, I didn’t know how to love. I was bitter. I thought all men were mean and I didn’t even know how to hug my own children because that isn’t how I was raised. Gary taught me to love. His endless hugs, and kind words, and his constant loving affection towards me, taught me how to love. ”

What a true testament to the character of Gary. He also taught me what love was and what was missing from my life, just by how he treated Bessie. I see the same in my father towards my mother. Gary and Bessie were married 46 years, and my parents have been married for 50 years, just this past September. What strong, wonderful Higginbotham men.

I learned many things from Gary. I would come for visits and we would drive all over town and he would point out all the places that were dear to his heart, and they were always centered around his family, past or present. I heard the stories of his childhood, his youth, and his adulthood. We laughed and always had a good time when we were together.

I know how much he loved his children and grandchildren. I already knew his youngest son Milton, but he wanted me to meet his son’s Gary Jr., and Mike so bad. He would call me up and say, “When are you going to Crossett with me? Mike is coming in town can you come? Don’t wait until my funeral to meet my boys!” Sadly, that is just what happened. Gary’s health seemed to decline and he never really felt like he could get far from home. I’m sure Gary knows that even though I met them at his funeral, we will stay in touch and never lose track of the family again, because that was important to him.

In the short time that I knew Gary, he taught me what true love means. He opened his heart and his home to me and treated me like a daughter. I will never forget the wonderful times I spent with him and they will fill my heart forever more. He was like a father to me, and I will always love him dearly. He was my buddy, through and through and I will always be grateful for the time I was given with him.

The best way to honor Gary is to love your family. Show them what love is, and let nothing get in the way. If you love someone, don’t waste time. Show them. Treat them like Gary treated Bessie. Life can go in an instant. Do you want to leave people wondering how much you loved them? I can guarantee you one thing; no one around Gary could ever doubt that he didn’t love him or her. He showed them, and he told them.

Oh boy, this is a hard one to write. My Dad’s first cousin Gary Higginbotham passed away last night from a heart attack. I don’t even have the words right now to describe what Gary meant to me. He was my buddy, and I loved him so dearly. My heart will have an empty hole in it forever more.

Please pray for Bessie his wife, and their children and grandchildren. It will be tough days ahead.

Hello, it’s been a while since I posted. So much has happened since the last post and I haven’t known what to even say about it all.

On Halloween, Knucklehead and I went to Shreveport to party it up with cousin Kookie. We had a blast, here are a few pictures from our night. This picture of myself kind of creeps me out now. It didn’t at the time, but oh well. We had fun at any rate.

Kookie – Halloween 2014

Knucklehead – Halloween 2014 – Pre Execution

Knucklehead – Halloween 2014 – After Execution

Knucklehead – Halloween 2014

We had a great time at Kookie’s house, and I can’t even tell you how many trick or treaters she had come through there, but it was a ton! They came on trailers, in the back of trucks, in cars and in droves just walking up. It was so fun to see all the different costumes and kids having a great time. Knucklehead had a blast jumping out of that coffin scaring people when they walked by.

The next day, we got up early and came home. I had dropped Knucklehead off at his Dad’s on my way through and it’s a good thing I did for when I got home, I found out The Hubs, as I have called him on here, had moved out. I was very glad Knucklehead wasn’t with me at that moment. I had no clue this was going to happen at that moment, but I did however know a storm was brewing. It had been for a while.

I don’t have anything bad to say about that man, but I don’t have much good to say and my momma has always told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all so that’s what I’m going to do.

I will say (ha ha, I knew I had to say at least a little something) though that now that the dust has settled and my life is back to a normal routine, I’ve come to realize that I was terribly burdened for a long time trying to make someone happy and keep the peace, and not having to do that anymore has improved my life immensely.

My family rallied around me and I have never felt so much love and support from them, and from good friends. They have never failed me, when others have.

Thanksgiving 2014

I see nothing but good days ahead for me and Knucklehead. We had a great Thanksgiving, my brother had some friends of his come in town, and my friend Jennifer, her husband Chopper and daughter Haley came, and we just had a really good time. Jennifer took the picture so regrettably, she isn’t in it. She and family spent the night and left the next day, and we had a great time catching up with each other.

With Christmas just days away and my other son Justin coming in town for the holidays, this is one happy momma and I can truly say that I am so blessed.

I’ll be back to my regular genealogy posts and more around the compound updates after the first of the year.

I thought I would share this video with you my brother John Higginbotham made. I’m always referring to our place as the compound and in this video you will see why. My brother has a helicopter and using GoPro’s he filmed our area. My nephew William Higginbotham is playing the piano, and later in the video my brother John is playing the guitar. I’m totally impressed and hope you will be too.

You can see my house around 1:10 in the video. He comes up from behind my barn and chicken coops and then flies over the house and the next house is his. When he flies over my parents house, they are surrounded by so many trees you can’t see much but he flies over comes over his pond and around the highway back around the other side of Dad’s property and you can then see his row of Bradford Pear trees.

To give you an idea of the layout of the land, I labeled this shot taken from his video.

I have decided to accept the challenge of Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small blog. Amy challenges us: 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I think this is an excellent challenge as I tend to focus on my brick walls, and this will force me to fan out in my tree and focus on other ancestors.

This is week 22, and my 21st post. Yes, I missed last week and so I will be doing two posts this week to get caught back up. For this post, I’ll be talking about Joseph F. Herring, my 3rd great-grandfather.

Thanks to bible records shared with me by cousins Martha Harris Horn, and her brother Butch Harris, we know that Joseph F. Herring was born on 11 Mar 1839. From other family stories and notes, we know his father was John S. Herring and his mother was Mary Elizabeth Sutner.

There has also been some confusion about his name. Every record I have seen either says J.F. or what I thought was Jas. F. Herring. For instance, after finding the date of their marriage in the bible, I found the original record recorded in Lafayette Co., Arkansas.

JF Herring and MG Hooker Marriage Record

Doesn’t that look like Jas. F Herring to you?

However, after finding this deed record, I know his name is Joseph F. Herring. I’m not attaching all the pages, but it does go on to say the land was previously owned by John S. Herring, and Mary G. Herring also signs the deed with him.

Deed Joseph F Herring to Peter R Johnston

So, all this time I thought his name was James F. Herring and now I find out it’s Joseph. After finding this out, I found him in the 1860 census with his mother, Elizabeth, and possibly a sister Ellena.

Elizabeth Herring 1860 Census

And that’s basically about all I know of Joseph F. Herring. I hope to find where he is buried and maybe a picture of him someday. I feel sure that one of the unidentified pictures that Martha and Butch have is surely of him since there were so many of his wife, but since they weren’t named, we will never know for sure if he is in any of the photos. That is such a shame!

This is how I descend from Joseph:

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But why??? Because it must! I must return to my children, husband and family before they send out a search party.

I had so much fun here in the DC area with cousins and my niece Leslie.

Last Wednesday I flew up to DC and had literally had my head in the clouds, the day was absolutely beautiful looking at the clouds.

Head in the Clouds

Last Thursday, I went to the DAR headquarters and did research, and found out I have a total of eight American Patriots.

DAR Headquarters

On Dad’s side of the family, I have Thomas Bullard.

On Mom’s side of the family I have Isaac Ball, Jacob Dennard, John Smith Jr., Abraham Neighbours, William Hooks, John Roberts and Godfrey Shelton.

So amazing! And the good thing was I was able to copy things out of their files like on Lt. Jacob Dennard for instance, I now have a copy of the original pay stubs from the American Revolution. Top that! Of course I also collected wills, bible records, and general information about the family. I think the DAR headquarters is one of the best sources around for genealogical information.

Then on Friday I went to the National Archives and pulled and actually held in my hand a copy of the muster rolls for Sanford Higginbotham from the Indian Creek Wars in 1836.

Sanford Higginbotham Muster Roll

I also held in my hand a copy of the muster rolls from the war of 1812 for my great-grandfather Ben Martin.

Benjamin Martin Muster Roll

Then on Saturday, Leslie and I hung around her apartment and watched Six Feet Under all day while working on genealogy and cleaning and organizing some things in her apartment. Well, mostly she did that but I did assist a bit. It was a good day at any rate.

Then, on Sunday, we went and got pedicures and drove to Fredericksburg, VA to meet our Hooker cousin. Ok, close your mouth, not a real Hooker, a cousin with the surname Hooker. As a family with “Hooker” as a surname of my Ancestors, I’d truly like to thank Gen. Joseph Hooker for ruining the good name and making it feel dirty to say. Doucher. I mean, the whole time we were there talking, it was just awkward to talk about Hookers in front of Jamie’s children. I wish I would have gotten a picture of all of us together, but I forgot! How stupid! Anyway, we figured out we are 3rd cousins 2x removed and we all had a great time visiting and getting to know each other. I really look forward to getting to know Jamie and her husband a lot better.

Then, on Monday, I met up with my 3rd cousin Jim Marsh and we headed over to 3rd cousin John Dawson’s house in McLean, VA where we spent the day scanning photos and other family documents from the Ball side of my family. It was totally awesome and John surprised me with a video he had taken interviewing his grandmother, Gladys Ball Gregg back in 1985. To hear her talk about family and my ancestors, was truly a treat. With John’s permission I will be sharing some of that soon! This is John and his lovely wife Ann.

John and Ann Dawson

This was a favorite find of mine, a picture of my great Aunt Dorothy with Jim’s mother Bonnie Harkness Marsh. I love both of these women.

Aunt Dorothy Johnson and Bonnie Marsh

Then on Tuesday, Jim and I met back up and we back to the DAR for a bit, and then Jim left and went to visit some other cousins, and I went to the Smithsonian American History Museum and back to the National Archives for a while and just killed time until Leslie got off work. Then we had a nice dinner, and went to a movie. A rocking movie theater with recliners. How fun and relaxing!

At the movies reclining!

Now, today I’m packing up and will spend the day traveling by planes, trains and automobiles. Let’s just hope I have an easier time than John Candy did.

I have decided to accept the challenge of Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small blog. Amy challenges us: 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I think this is an excellent challenge as I tend to focus on my brick walls, and this will force me to fan out in my tree and focus on other ancestors.

This is week twenty, and my twentieth post. This week I will be talking about Godfrey Shelton, my 5th great-grandfather. I had originally planned to talk about Wevie’s husband since I posted about Wevie last week, but that all changed after my visit to the Daughter’s of the American Revolution headquarters in Washington, DC on Thursday.

Since my last trip to DC, I had filled a huge genealogy chart for myself that holds up to 10 generations, which is enough for me to search patriots of the American Revolution. So I took my chart into the DAR headquarters, sat at one of the computers and started looking up all the men on my chart that would have lived in that time period. I found three more patriots, including Godfrey Shelton!

Godfrey Shelton, Ancestor # A102775 was found listed on the Virginia War Rolls, Volume 4, page 341 as being in the Virginia Line Infantry. He is also listed on page 872 of Historical register of Virginians in the revolution, soldiers, sailors, marines, 1775-1783.

As best I can tell Godfrey was born about 1760, and was the son of Josiah Shelton. The will of Josiah Shelton was in his DAR file, listing Godfrey as administrator of Josiah’s estate.

Also in his file, was this abstract from Charlotte County, Virginia regarding the marriage of Godfrey Shelton to Molly Williams on 2 Feb 1768.

Godfrey Shelton and Molly Williams Marriage Record

Don’t you just love to find a record like this that lists a parent?!?! Thank you for the hint , DAR!!! Cause you all know how easy it is to track the surname Williams, right?! Not!

According to the 1820 Census, Godfrey was living in Davidson Co., Tennessee and was responsible for 26 people; himself, his wife, five boys, one girl, and nineteen slaves.

Godfrey Shelton 1820 Census

On the 1830 Census, Godfrey is again listed in Davidson County, Tennessee, this time he has 36 people he’s responsible for, himself, his wife, a boy, a girl and 32 slaves!! Unreal!

I also found a copy of his will in the DAR file from Davidson County, Tennessee dated Oct, 1830 so he must have died after the census taker came by.

Godfrey Shelton Will

And that is it! And, that’s only a smidgen of what I found out yesterday at the DAR, because I found out about three other patriots as well.

As far as Godfrey goes though, it sure gave me a good start on him, wouldn’t you say??

Today is the day I head to DC! I can hear John Denver singing this song now as I’m waiting in the airport terminal to board. The flight is delayed so I thought I would get a blog post in.

I’m really excited to get to see my niece Leslie and get some research done for another cousin of mine.

I’m also meeting up with another cousin Jim, whom I met last time I went to DC, and another cousin John I haven’t met yet. This is so exciting for us family historians, you know. It’s what we all want when we start this journey, to find family we didn’t know we had, and build a relationship with them for future generations.

There hasn’t been much going on Around the Compound lately. Just watching the garden grow and feeding all the animals. We did manage to get lots of spring cleaning done on the yard and get all the leaves up but I still have one flower bed to clean up.

I did find this really cool tree in my Dad’s woods.

Have you ever heard about how Native Americans would bend the trees to mark their way, or to a water source, and I guess where they would be living during certain times. I saw a class about this not long ago so I was excited to find this tree in my Dad’s woods. I have emailed the guy that did the class so he can come out and look at it and tell me if it’s the real deal or not.

You can find out more information about these kinds of trees at www.mountainstewards.org.

In the mean time, I hope you all have a good week and I will try to report in about my travels and certainly about any good family stuff I find!

As me and my kids say to each other all the time, Peace and Hair Grease!!

I have decided to accept the challenge of Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small blog. Amy challenges us: 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I think this is an excellent challenge as I tend to focus on my brick walls, and this will force me to fan out in my tree and focus on other ancestors.

As I posted about her mother in the above post, her mother Mary passed away in 1891 when Wevie was just 6 years old. This is the earliest picture I have of Wevie, with her father, John E. Anderson.

Wevie Anderson and JE Anderson

I’ve posted this picture before of Wevie with her sister Smithia, but I have to again because I love it. Wevie is on the left and Smithia on the right.

Wevie and Smithia Anderson

In 1892 her father John remarried a wonderful woman, Eva Dalby. She raised Wevie and Smithia as if they were her own children. I don’t know why all stepmother’s get a bad rap?!? Do you?

JE Anderson, Eva Anderson with Wevie Anderson. I don’t know who the young man is.

This next picture of Wevie looks to be around her teenage years or early adulthood. My cousin Sam has a huge portrait of this one hanging in his home and it’s beautiful.

Wevie Anderson

One thing about it, she could have been in fashion magazine’s. Here she is with a cousin, Daisy (Wever) Missildine. This must have been some special occasion. Daisy is on the left, and Wevie on the right.

Daisy and Wevie

While growing up, Wevie’s father owned the local Confectionery Shop and the Telephone company, and the switchboard was in the back room of the Confectionery Shop and Wevie helped operate the switchboard.

Switchboard in the back of the Drug Store in New Boston, owned by John Anderson

I bet Wevie knew ALL the town gossip! Seriously, my only experience with a town switchboard is from watching Little House on the Prairie and we all know what Mrs. Olsen did, that ole nosy busybody! tee hee. I don’t know if Wevie did that or not, but I’m sure it was tempting!

I found this picture at the New Boston Library, in New Boston, Texas. You can see in this picture she has her ear piece on.

John Anderson and Wevie Anderson Telephone Operators

I heard a few stories about Wevie growing up, and one that I heard was told to my father by Wevie herself.

She said back in the day before they had cars, she and her family traveled by wagon. One day she and Smithia were traveling with their father and they needed to stop and relieve themselves. Well, there were no rest stops so you just pulled over walked out in the grass and relieved yourself. Well, just as she and Smithia started on this task, another wagon came by and Wevie jerked her dress down, but Smithia threw her dress up over her head. After the wagon went by, Wevie asked her, “Smithia, why did you do that??” Smithia calmly replied, “Well, they will see your face again and know who you are and what you were doing, but they will never see my ass again, so they won’t know it was me or what I was doing!!”

We’ve gotten a big kick out of that story over the years.

On April 6, 1910, Wevie married Samuel Hartwell “Bye” Ball. I found this wedding announcement in her bible, and this picture of Wevie in her wedding dress. I think she was a beautiful bride.

Wevie Anderson Ball in her Wedding Dress Apr 1910

Wevie Anderson Marriage Announcement

This next picture of Bye and Wevie looks to be taken on a boat and it looks so romantic! I love to see men and women dressed up like this. This is not what society looks like today!

Wevie and Bye Ball

And how about this? You’ve see this in movies, but here it is in real life! How sweet!

Bye and Wevie Ball

They look like they really knew how to have a good time! I love the bathing suits, but can you imagine swimming in that?

Bye and Wevie Ball on left other couple unknown

Bye and Wevie had four children. One baby girl was stillborn and the other three children were amazing people who were each very special to me. First, was Aunt Dorothy and boy did I love her, then Uncle Son was everyone’s hero and one of the best men I knew and last but not least, there was my grandmother, Poo, one of the greatest loves of my life.

I don’t know much about Wevie, but I do know that she raised beautiful children, inside and out.

Mary (my grandmother), Sam (Uncle Son) and Dorothy (Aunt Dot)

One of the cool things that I found out about Wevie at the Hooks library was that she had confirmed my birth to the family historian, Cathaline Stern, Man! This made my day!

Wevie Confirms My Birth

Unfortunately, I don’t really remember anything about Wevie, but I was around her as a baby and toddler. In the next photo, I’m the baby on my mother’s lap and Wevie is next to her. I love this four generation photo!

Wevie lived a very long and beautiful life, I’ve never heard an unkind word about her. Aunt Dorothy’s grandson Marc Burch told me he thought Memaw Ball inherited the Coke Float because she always made him one when he would visit her and it was the best he ever had.

Wevie (Anderson) Ball

Here she is with her children, in 1974 celebrating her 90th birthday.

Aunt Dorothy, Memaw Ball, Uncle Son, and Poo

Wevie died on December 3, 1975, sixteen days before her 91st birthday.

I have decided to accept the challenge of Amy Johnson Crow over at No Story Too Small blog. Amy challenges us: 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I think this is an excellent challenge as I tend to focus on my brick walls, and this will force me to fan out in my tree and focus on other ancestors.

This is week 18, and my eighteenth post. Henry Roberts is my 5th great-grandfather. I learned about Henry while at the Daughter’s of the American Revolution library while I was in D.C. last year.

Henry, born about 1766, is the son of my American Revolution patriot John Roberts, and his wife Susan (Magness) Roberts. I came across their information because a cousin of mine, Cathaline Stern, the rock-star of genealogy for my family, did a lot of research back in the 70’s and documented no less than four patriots for our family! I copied a bunch of information from their files while there, and here are the things I found out about Henry from the DAR file.

I found this bible record, which is really hard to read, but from this I figured out his wife and my 5th great-grandmother was Zilphia Carraway.

Hooks Family Bible

He was listed as an administrator for his father’s will along with his brother Isaac Roberts.

Estate John Roberts – Henry as Administrator

Estate John Roberts – Henry as Administrator

Then, I found this very interesting note regarding his demise.

Fate of Henry Roberts

I wanted to see if I could find a copy of the original newspaper article and I did.

Henry Roberts Death

I’m going to see if I can trace this Kenan Harper and found out what he is all about. There’s no telling what you can find out about your ancestors, and don’t forget to use the wonderful source of the DAR!! I would have not had any of this if I hadn’t looked there.